Intel has upped the clock speed of the upcoming Pentium 4 Extreme Edition which is expected to support a 1066MHz frontside bus speed.

That a gigahertz FSB is on the cards emerged late in June courtesy of an ABIT product roadmap. The document revealed the upcoming availability of a 3.46GHz P4EE that will ship alongside a new version of 'Alderwood', Intel's P4EE-oriented chipset.

That chipset will be the i925XE and, like the faster P4EE, is scheduled to appear in Q4 - probably mid-October, we'd say.

Now, more recent Intel roadmaps show not only the 3.46GHz P4EE but a 3.73GHz model appearing mid-Q4 - in the middle of November, in other words.

Unlike the 3.46GHz model, the 3.73GHz is a 90nm 'Prescott'-derived part. The 3.46GHz chip is based on the 130nm 'Northwood' core in its 'Gallatin' form, which supports 2MB of L3 cache. The Prescott version simply ups the L2 cache to 2MB. Both 1066GHz FSB chips will use the 775-pin Socket T connector.

As a 90nm part, the 3.73GHz P4EE is likely to be the first of its class to sport a model number, in the case in the form 7xx, probably 720.

Come Q2 2005, and the i925XE is scheduled to be superseded by 'Glenwood', the next-generation 'Alderwood'. It will accompany the 'Grantsdale' successor, 'Lakeport'. Both chipsets will pave the way for the launch of 'Smithfield', Intel's anticipated dual-core P4 and P4EE chips. ®